Judge Richard Goldstone hopes Israel's refusal to cooperate will not weaken the final report on Gaza war.The head of a United Nations team investigating possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war said Thursday he had been shocked by the scale of the destruction in the Palestinian areas. South African Judge Richard Goldstone spoke at the end of a four-day fact-finding trip to Gaza, during which his 15-member team interviewed dozens of witnesses and visited sites damaged in Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas that ended Jan. 18. His team hoped to visit Israel and the West Bank as well, but Israel has refused to cooperate, citing alleged anti-Israel bias by the U.N. Human Rights Council, the probe's sponsor. Goldstone said he hoped Israel's refusal would not weaken the final report, due in early September, adding that it would not keep the team from investigating allegations against both sides. "If we haven't dealt with facts that Israel would like us to deal with, I think we can hardly be blamed for that," he said. The team announced Thursday that it will hold public hearings with the war's victims later this month in Gaza and Geneva. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he did not anticipate achange in Israel's stand toward the investigation or the Human Right Council, which has a record of criticizing Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. "They should call us the day the Human Rights Council decides on a human rights inquiry on some other place around the globe," he said, mentioning Darfur and Sri Lanka. "After that, we may start to be convinced that they are not singling out Israel." Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups began calling for war crimes investigations soon after the 22-day war ended in January. Israeli launched the war to stop eight years of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli towns. Palestinian human rights groups say more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians. Israel says around 1,100 Gazans were killed and that most were militants. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians. Goldstone refused to comment on the ongoing investigation's content. But human rights groups have said Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians. They say Hamas fought from civilian areas and is suspected of having used human shields - all of which can be violations of international law. Goldstone, who previously investigated war crimes in Rwanda and the formerYugoslavia, said the public hearings in Gaza and Geneva later this month would allow the voices and the faces of victims to be seen and heard by the whole international community. He said both Palestinians and Israelis would be invited to speak in Geneva.

Israel does not intend to cooperate with a U.N. investigative team in the region to probe alleged Israeli war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.In an effort to defuse tensions, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday in New York.The Israeli defense minister expressed doubts whether the U.N. team headed by South African Justice Richard Goldstone, who arrived in Israel Monday, would maintain an objective outlook. Barak noted the investigation would not address the numerous terror attacks and thousands of rocket attacks launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip.Barak and Moon reportedly discussed an array of issues, ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Syria's smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah to the Iranian nuclear threat.Speaking after the meeting, Barak said "the mandate that the Goldstone Committee got is to look into war crimes in regard to the operation in Gaza. ...we know that they will never be able to talk to the other side and penetrate or investigate the series of terrorist operations along years…," Ynetnews reported.The Maariv daily newspaper quoted Barak saying "the State of Israel does not need an investigating committee, it knows that it has the most moral army in the world." In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fazwzi Barhoum welcomed the U.N. committee's arrival.Israel concluded its own investigation of Operation Cast Lead weeks ago which found the army's actions were well within the limits of international law in all operational matters including allegations of the use of white phosphorous shells and targeting civilians.

Al-Fakhoura School is one of 37 schools operated by UNRWA in Jabalia refugee camp. During Operation Cast Lead, the school was used to shelter displaced civilians who were trying to escape the fighting, or had been ordered to leave their areas of residence by the Israeli military, in northern Gaza. UNRWA had provided the Israeli army with the exact GPS coordinates of al-Fakhoura School.The school was also included on a list of 91 provisional shelters that was communicated to the Israeli military before the start of the offensive. On 6 January 2009 at around 3:45pm, Israeli tanks shelled the perimeter of al-Fakhoura school. Shells landed on the road just outside the school. There were no fatalities inside the school, but, according to DCI-Palestine documentation, 44 people, including 14 children, were killed in the immediate vicinity of the school; 14-year-old Ibrahim Ma'rouf was living in the school and died in the incident. According to data gathered by DCI-Palestine, the following 14 children were killed in the shelling in close proximity to al-Fakhoura school:

Nour Moe’in Shafiq Deeb (3)

Mohammad Ahmad Shaqoura (8)

Asil Moe’in Shafiq Deeb (9)

Lina Abed al-Meni’m Nafez Hasan (10)

Abdullah Shafiq Abdullah (11)

Esam Samir Shafiq Deeb (13)

Mostafa Moe’in Shfiq Deeb (13)

Bashar Samir Moussa Naji (13)

'Ahed Iyad Quddas (14)

Imad Mohammad Abu Askar (14)

Ibrahim Ahmad Hasan Ma'rouf (14)

Ismail Adnan Hasan Hawila (16)

Mohammad Moe’in Shfiq Deeb (16)

Bilal Hamza Ali Obaid (17)

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During Operation Cast Lead, many children were killed as a result of Israeli military attacks targeting schools or alleged military objectives located in close proximity to schools.

So far, DCI-Palestine has documented the killing of 32 children and maiming of at least six

Al-Fakhoura School is one of 37 schools operated by UNRWA in Jabalia refugee camp. During Operation Cast Lead, it was used to shelter civilians. UNRWA had provided the Israeli army with the exact GPS coordinates of al-Fakhoura School. The school was also included on a list of 91 provisional shelters that was communicated to the Israeli military before the start of the offensive. On 6 January 2009 at around 3:45pm, Israeli tanks shelled the perimeter of al-Fakhoura school. Shells landed on the road just outside the school. There were no fatalities inside the school, but 44 people, including 14 children, were killed in the immediate vicinity of the school; 16-year-old Ismail Hawila was one of them.Operation Cast Lead: 17-year-old killed in shelling nearby UNRWA school

Al-Fakhoura is one of 37 schools operated by UNRWA in Jabalia refugee camp. During Operation Cast Lead, the school was used to shelter displaced civilians. UNRWA had provided the Israeli army with its exact GPS coordinates.

1 The school was also included on a list of 91 provisional shelters that had been communicated to the Israeli military before the start of the offensive.2 On 6 January 2009 at around 3:45pm, Israeli tanks shelled the perimeter of al-Fakhoura school. Shells landed on the street just outside the school.

There were no fatalities inside the school, but 44 people, including 14 children, were killed in the immediate vicinity of the school; 17-year-old Bilal was among them.